Method and system for mobile delivery of broadcast content

ABSTRACT

A satellite dish assembly may comprise a broadcast receive module and a basestation module. The broadcast receive module may be operable to receive a satellite signal, recover media carried in the satellite signal, and output the media. The basestation module may be operable to accept the media output by the broadcast receive module and transmit the media in accordance with one or more wireless protocols. In being conveyed from the broadcast receive module to the basestation, the media content may not traverse any wide area network connection. The one or more wireless protocols may comprise one or more of: a cellular protocol and IEEE 802.11 protocol. The satellite dish assembly may comprise a routing module that may be operable to route data between the broadcast receive module, the basestation, and a gateway.

CLAIM OF PRIORITY

This patent application is a continuation of U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 14/828,889, filed Aug. 18, 2015, which is a continuation ofU.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/596,852, filed Aug. 28, 2012, whichmakes reference to, claims priority to, and claims benefit from U.S.Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 61/595,654, filed on Feb. 6,2012. Each of the above applications is incorporated herein by referencein its entirety.

The above-identified application is hereby incorporated herein byreference in its entirety.

INCORPORATION BY REFERENCE

This patent application also makes reference to:

-   U.S. Pat. No. 8,466,850 entitled “Method and System for    Multi-Service Reception” and filed on Jul. 11, 2012;-   U.S. Pat. No. 9,055,329 entitled “System and Method in a Broadband    Receiver for Efficiently Receiving and Processing Signals” and filed    on Dec. 14, 2011;-   U.S. Pat. No. 8,700,449 entitled “Targeted Advertisement in the    Digital Television Environment” and filed on Oct. 30, 2007.

Each of the above-identified applications is hereby incorporated hereinby reference in its entirety.

TECHNICAL FIELD

Aspects of the present application relate to electronic communications.More specifically, to a method and system for mobile satellite content.

BACKGROUND

Existing methods and systems for delivering terrestrial and/or satellitebroadcast content to mobile devices can be inefficient. Furtherlimitations and disadvantages of conventional and traditional approacheswill become apparent to one of skill in the art, through comparison ofsuch approaches with some aspects of the present method and system setforth in the remainder of this disclosure with reference to thedrawings.

BRIEF SUMMARY

A method and/or system is provided for mobile delivery of broadcastcontent, substantially as illustrated by and/or described in connectionwith at least one of the figures, as set forth more completely in theclaims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 depicts a system that is operable to convey satellite data tomobile devices.

FIG. 2A depicts an example implementation of the system of FIG. 1 inwhich the system comprises a macrocell basestation.

FIG. 2B depicts an example implementation of the system of FIG. 1 inwhich the system comprises a small-cell basestation.

FIG. 3 depicts another example implementation of the system of FIG. 1.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating example steps performed by a systemoperable to convey satellite data to mobile devices.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

As utilized herein the terms “circuits” and “circuitry” refer tophysical electronic components (i.e. hardware) and any software and/orfirmware (“code”) which may configure the hardware, be executed by thehardware, and or otherwise be associated with the hardware. As utilizedherein, “and/or” means any one or more of the items in the list joinedby “and/or”. As an example, “x and/or y” means any element of thethree-element set { (x), (y), (x, y)}. As another example, “x, y, and/orz” means any element of the seven-element set {(x), (y), (z), (x, y),(x, z), (y, z), (x, y, z)}. As utilized herein, the term “module” refersto functions than can be performed by one or more circuits. As utilizedherein, the terms “e.g.,” and “for example” introduce a list of one ormore non-limiting examples, instances, or illustrations.

FIG. 1 depicts a system that is operable to convey satellite data tomobile devices. Referring to FIG. 1, the system 100 comprises abroadcast receive module 104, a wireless input/output (I/O) module 106,a wired I/O module 108, and a routing module 124.

The various components of the system 100 and the module 112 may becollocated on, for example, a cellular tower as shown in FIG. 2A, asatellite subscriber premises (e.g., a house, multi-dwelling unit, orbusiness) as shown in FIG. 2B, and/or any other suitable location suchas roadside buildings or billboards. The system 100 may comprise one ormore printed circuit boards and/or one or more integrated circuits(e.g., one or more silicon die).

The system 100 and the module 112 may be part of a local area network(LAN) and may be interconnected via a LAN technology such as Ethernet(e.g., Ethernet frames communicated over an Ethernet physical layer suchas 10/100/1G/10G/40GBASE-T). In an example implementation, each port ofthe system 100 and the port of module 112 that connects to system 100may share a common subnet address that is not shared with the port ofthe module 112 that connects to the WAN 120. The module 112 mayinterface the LAN to a wide area network (WAN) 120 over WAN connection126 utilizing, for example, DOCSIS, DSL, Carrier Ethernet, ATM, FrameRelay, ISDN, x.25, and/or other suitable WAN technology. The WAN 120may, for example, backhaul traffic between wireless I/O module 106 and acellular core network.

The broadcast (e.g., satellite broadcast) receive module 104 may beoperable to receive broadcast signals and process the received broadcastsignals to recover data (e.g., audio, video content, and/or auxiliarydata related to audio and/or video content) carried therein. Althoughthis disclosure focuses on satellite radio and satellite televisionbroadcast signals, the present invention is not so limited. Rather,other types of signals such as terrestrial broadcast television signalsare contemplated. Accordingly, various implementations of the system 100may comprise features described in U.S. patent application Ser. No.13/546,704 which is incorporated herein by reference as set forth above.In an example implementation, the module 104 may perform channelizationsuch that specific channels, streams, programs, etc. from the module 104can be selectively conveyed to the module 124. In an exampleimplementation, the module 104 may output data in the form of MPEGtransport stream(s) to the module 124. In an example implementation, themodule 104 may encapsulate received data utilizing one or more protocols(e.g., Internet Protocol) for output to the module 124.

The wireless module 106 may be operable to establish one or morewireless connections 116 with one or more devices such as the mobiledevice 110 (e.g., a cellular handset). The connection(s) 116 may utilizeany suitable protocol(s) such as, for example, IEEE 802.11 protocols,WiGig, WiMAX, cellular (e.g., LTE), etc.

The wired module 108 may be operable to communicate data via one or morecables 114, with module 112. The module 112 (e.g., a media gatewayand/or edge router) may, in turn, route traffic between the system 100and one or more other devices (e.g., client devices connected to thegateway and/or interior network nodes connected to the gateway). In anexemplary implementation, the wired I/O module 108 may be operable tooutput, onto the cable(s) 114, L-band signals received from the module104. Such signals may be output in instances that the module 112 is alegacy gateway. Additionally or alternatively, the module 108 may beoperable to communicate over the cable(s) 114 utilizing Ethernet,Multimedia over Coax Alliance (MoCA), and/or any other suitableprotocol(s). Such communications may be used, for example, when themodule 112 is a gateway that is compatible with an IP-LNB as describedin U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/326,125, which is incorporated byreference above.

In another exemplary implementation, the module 112 may support awireless connection and the functionality of the wired module 108 may besubsumed by the module 106 and/or by a second wireless module.

The routing module 124 may be operable to selectively route data and/orsignals between the modules 104, 106, and 108. The routing may be based,for example, on IP addresses, TCP/UDP port numbers, packet identifiers(PIDs), stream identifiers, and/or any other suitable field orinformation. For example, packets comprising a first PID may be sent tothe module 106 and packets comprising a second PID may be sent to themodule 108. In an example implementation, the module 124 may be adigital and/or analog crossbar. In an example implementation, the module124 may perform an OSI layer-3 packet-routing function and/or an OSIlayer-2 packet-switching function. The module 124 may be configured viaone or more control signals (not shown) which may, in turn, be based oninput (e.g., utilizing a protocol such as DiSEqC) from the module 112and/or client devices such as the client device 122 and client device110.

In operation of an example implementation, the broadcast Rx module 104may receive a satellite signal and perform block down conversion togenerate an L-band signal. The L-band signal may be conveyed to themodule 108 for support of legacy gateways. The module 104 may alsodemodulate the L-band signal to recover one or more MPEG transportstreams, channelize the transport stream(s) to recover one or moreprograms, and encapsulate the stream(s) and/or program(s) into one ormore packet streams (e.g., utilizing IP or some other suitableprotocol(s)). The one or more packet streams may be conveyed, via module124, to the module 106 and/or the module 108.

The module 108 may decapsulate, encode, modulate, encrypt, and/orotherwise process the transport stream(s) to generate signals suitablefor transmission via the cable(s) 114. The module 108 may transmit thegenerated signals via the cable(s) 114.

The module 106 may encode, modulate, and/or otherwise process thetransport stream(s) to generate signals suitable for transmission viathe connection(s) 116. The module 106 may then transmit the generatedsignals via the connection(s) 116. Thus, the system 100 may enabledelivering satellite data to the mobile device 110 without the datahaving to traverse the WAN 120 or the broadband connection 126.

FIG. 2A depicts an example implementation of the system of FIG. 1 inwhich the system comprises a basestation such as, for example, amacrocell basestation. In FIG. 2A, the system 100 includes a satellitereception assembly 202 comprising subassembly 204, the module 108, themodule 124, and a basestation 206. In the example implementation shownin FIG. 2A, the basestation 206 may be an implementation of the module106 described above. In the example implementation shown in FIG. 2A, themodules 108 and 124 may be as described above, with the module 108utilizing one or more protocols which may conventionally be used forinterfacing a basestation to a cellular backhaul network. While thesatellite reception assembly 202 shown comprises a satellite dishassembly comprising parabolic reflector and a feed horn, the satellitereception assembly is not so limited. For example, a satellite receptionassembly could comprise a planar or parabolic array of antenna elementsand/or receiver circuitry whose signals are combined for satellitesignal reception.

The subassembly 204 may comprise, for example, an Internet Protocol LNB(IP-LNB) as described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/326,125,which is incorporated herein by reference, as set forth above. In thisregard, the nomenclature “IP-LNB” indicates that the subassembly 252possesses capabilities beyond the block downconversion of receivedsatellite signals that is performed by conventional LNBs. In theimplementation of FIG. 2A, the subassembly 204 is depicted as a singlephysical assembly mounted to the satellite reception assembly 202. Inother implementations, the subassembly 204 may comprise multiplephysical assemblies, one or more of which may reside physically separatefrom the satellite reception assembly 202 and be connected to thesatellite reception assembly 202 via one or more wired and/or wirelesslinks.

FIG. 2B depicts an example implementation of the system of FIG. 1 inwhich the system comprises a basestation, such as, for example, asmall-cell (e.g., femtocell or picocell) base station. In FIG. 2B, thesystem 100 comprises a satellite reception assembly 220, a gateway 214,and a subassembly 222 which, in turn, comprises an IP-LNB module 224, acellular basestation module 226, the routing module 124, and an Ethernettransceiver module 228. The various modules of the subassembly 222 mayreside in one or more housings, on one or more printed circuit boards,and/or one or more integrated circuits (e.g., one or more silicon dice).Although the various modules of subassembly 222 are depicted as beingpart of the satellite reception assembly (or “outdoor unit”), in otherimplementations all or a portion of the modules 224, 226, 230, and 228may be part of the gateway 214 (or “indoor unit”).

The IP-LNB module 224 may be an implementation of the module 104described above and may be as described in U.S. patent application Ser.No. 13/326,125, which is incorporated herein by reference, as set forthabove. Functions performed by the IP-LNB module 224 may comprise, forexample, downconverting received satellite signals, demodulatingreceived satellite signals, channelizing received satellite signals,and/or encapsulating data recovered from received satellite signals intoIP packets.

The routing module 230 may be an implementation of the module 124described above. Functions performed by the module 230 may compriserouting of data between the IP-LNB module 224, the cellular basestationmodule 226, and the Ethernet transceiver module 228. Although animplementation in which the routing module supports IP-based routing isdescribed herein, any suitable protocols (e.g., Ethernet, PCIe, USB,etc.) can be utilized for communication of data between modules 224,226, 230, and 228.

The Ethernet transceiver module 228 may be an implementation of themodule 108 described above. Functions performed by the module 228 maycomprise encapsulation of data from the module 230 into Ethernet framesand transmission of the Ethernet frames onto the cable(s) 114 inaccordance with Ethernet protocols. Additionally or alternatively,functions performed by the module 228 may comprise reception of Ethernetframes via the cable(s) 114, processing of the Ethernet frames torecover data carried therein (e.g., IP packets), and conveyance of therecovered data to the routing module 230.

The small-cell basestation module 226 may be an implementation of themodule 106 described above. Such functions may comprise communicationwith one or more cellular devices that are within communication range ofthe basestation 226. The basestation module 226 may be operable toreceive data via one or more cellular connections 116, process thereceived data, and output the data to the routing module 230 in the formof one or more IP packets. Similarly, the small-cell basestation 226 maybe operable to receive IP packets from the routing module 230, processthe IP packets, and transmit signals carrying the IP packets (or theircontents) via one or more connections 116. An exemplary implementationof the basestation module 226 is described below with respect to FIG. 3.

The gateway 214 may be an implementation of module 112 described above.Functions performed by the gateway 214 may comprise reception,processing, and transmission of data. The gateway 214 may transmitand/or receive data to and/or from the system 100 (via cable(s) 114),the WAN 120 (via WAN connection 126), and/or one or more client devices122 (via one or more links 234). For data from the module 228 to aclient device 122, the gateway 214 may recover the data from Ethernetframes received over the cable(s) 114 and output the data to the clientdevice 122. For data from the client 122 and/or gateway 114 to themodule 228, the gateway 214 may encapsulate the data in one or moreEthernet frames and output the frames onto the cable(s) 114. For databetween the WAN 120 and the module 228, the gateway 214 may perform OSIlayer-2 switching and/or OSI layer-3 routing. Although theimplementation shown in FIG. 2B uses wired links between the gateway 214and module 228, and between the gateway 214 and WAN 120, other mayutilize wireless links. Although the gateway 214 is depicted as separatefrom the system 100, in other implementations at least a portion of thesystem 100 may reside in and/or be implemented by the gateway 214.

In operation, one or more cellular devices within the coverage area ofthe basestation module 226 may connect to the basestation module 226 andrequest data (e.g., audio and/or video content). In instances that therequested data is not available via satellite, the data may be retrievedvia the WAN 120 and the gateway 214. In instances that the requesteddata is available via satellite, however, the data may be conveyed fromthe IP-LNB module 224 to the basestation module 226 via the routingmodule 230. Thus, the data may be delivered to the cellular deviceswithout having to traverse the WAN 120. In such instances, the only loadon the WAN 120 resulting from delivering the data to the cellulardevices may be a small amount of traffic for implementing conditionalaccess (CA) and/or billing the cellular devices. Moreover, even this CAand/or billing traffic may be eliminated if an out-of-band connection toa CA and/or billing server is available (e.g., the basestation canwirelessly connect to the CA and/or billing server).

FIG. 3 depicts another example implementation of the system of FIG. 1.Shown in FIG. 3 are the routing module 230, the IP-LNB module 224, andthe gateway 214 described above. Also shown are: a headend 310 andcellular core network 312 which are part of the WAN 120; and examplecomponents of the basestation 226 which include an analog front end(AFE) 306, packet processing module 304, port filtering module 302, andcontroller 308.

The controller 308 may be operable to control operation of thebasestation 226. This may comprise, for example, executing an operatingsystem and generating signals which may control operation of variousmodules of the basestation 226.

The packet processing module 304 may be operable to encapsulate,decapsulate, encode, decode, and/or otherwise process packets inaccordance with communication protocols being used for communicatingwith the routing module 230 and in accordance with communicationprotocols being used for communicating via the connection(s) 116. Inthis manner, data received from the routing module 230 may be madesuitable for communication via the connection(s) 116 and data receivedvia the connection(s) 116 may be made suitable for communication to therouting module 230.

The AFE 204 may perform upconversion, modulation, amplification,digital-to-analog conversion, and/or any other suitable processingfunctions for receiving digital data from the packet processing module304 and generating RF signals to communicate the data wirelessly.Similarly, the AFE 204 may perform downconversion, demodulation,amplification, analog-to-digital conversion, and/or any other suitableprocessing functions for recovering data from received RF signals andconveying the data to the packet processing module 304.

The traffic filtering module 302 may be operable to inspect trafficinput to the basestation 226 from the routing module 230 to determinewhether the traffic is approved for communication via the cellularconnection(s) 116. The filtering module 302 may, for example, comprise atable of authorized IP addresses, TCP/UDP ports, and/or some otheridentifiers for determining which traffic is authorized. In an exampleimplementation, an identifier of the IP-LNB module 224 may be programmedinto the filtering module 302 after authenticating the IP-LNB module224. Thereafter, the filtering module 226 may accept traffic from theIP-LNB module 224 as well as traffic from the cellular core network 312(received via the headend 310 and gateway 214). Traffic not identifiedas coming from either of these sources may be dropped.

The headend 310 may be operable to provide the gateway 214 with accessto the WAN 120 (and thus the cellular core network 312). In animplementation, the headend 310 may be operable to detect and logtraffic communicated over the WAN connection 314. For example, theheadend 310 may keep track of the amount of traffic identified as beingassociated with the IP-LNB module 224, the basestation 226, and/or thecellular core network 312. Such information may be utilized, forexample, for billing cellular customers, cellular providers, satellitecustomers, and/or satellite providers for use of the connection 314.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating example steps performed by a systemoperable to convey satellite data to mobile devices. The steps beginwith step 402 in which one or more wireless connections 116 areestablished between a basestation (e.g., 206 or 226) and one or moremobile devices (e.g., device 110). The establishment of the connectionmay comprise, for example, authenticating that the one or more mobiledevices are authorized to receive satellite data. In step 404, asatellite signal is received (e.g., via module 204 or 224), processed torecover data carried therein. The recovered data is then encapsulated inan IP packet stream. In step 406, the IP packet stream carrying thesatellite data is conveyed to a gateway (e.g., via routing module 124and Ethernet transceiver module 128) and/or to the basestation. Whichdata is conveyed to the gateway and which data is conveyed to thebasestation may depend on which data has been requested by each and/orthe service level agreements that are in place. In step 408, thebasestation processes the satellite data conveyed to it (e.g., by therouting module 230) to generate one or more signals which carry thesatellite data and are suitable for transmission via the establishedwireless connections 116. In step 410, the signal(s) generated in step408 are transmitted via the connection(s) 116.

Other implementations may provide a non-transitory computer readablemedium and/or storage medium, and/or a non-transitory machine readablemedium and/or storage medium, having stored thereon, a machine codeand/or a computer program having at least one code section executable bya machine and/or a computer, thereby causing the machine and/or computerto perform the steps as described herein for mobile delivery ofbroadcast content.

Accordingly, the present method and/or system may be realized inhardware, software, or a combination of hardware and software. Thepresent method and/or system may be realized in a centralized fashion inat least one computing system, or in a distributed fashion wheredifferent elements are spread across several interconnected computingsystems. Any kind of computing system or other system adapted forcarrying out the methods described herein is suited. A typicalcombination of hardware and software may be a general-purpose computingsystem with a program or other code that, when being loaded andexecuted, controls the computing system such that it carries out themethods described herein. Another typical implementation may comprise anapplication specific integrated circuit or chip.

The present method and/or system may also be embedded in a computerprogram product, which comprises all the features enabling theimplementation of the methods described herein, and which when loaded ina computer system is able to carry out these methods. Computer programin the present context means any expression, in any language, code ornotation, of a set of instructions intended to cause a system having aninformation processing capability to perform a particular functioneither directly or after either or both of the following: a) conversionto another language, code or notation; b) reproduction in a differentmaterial form.

While the present method and/or system has been described with referenceto certain implementations, it will be understood by those skilled inthe art that various changes may be made and equivalents may besubstituted without departing from the scope of the present methodand/or system. In addition, many modifications may be made to adapt aparticular situation or material to the teachings of the presentdisclosure without departing from its scope. Therefore, it is intendedthat the present method and/or system not be limited to the particularimplementations disclosed, but that the present method and/or systemwill include all implementations falling within the scope of theappended claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A system comprising a receive module and awireless basestation that is collocated with the receive module, thesystem being operable to: receive, via the receive module, a pluralityof packets sent from a network to the wireless basestation via asatellite subscriber gateway; monitor whether the network is associatedwith the wireless basestation and a cellular provider; convey theplurality of packets to the wireless basestation if the network isassociated with the wireless basestation and the cellular provider; andtransmit the plurality of packets via the wireless basestation if theplurality of packets are conveyed to the wireless basestation.
 2. Thesystem of claim 1, wherein the satellite receive module and the wirelessbasestation are adapted for installation at a satellite subscriberpremises.
 3. The system of claim 1, wherein the wireless basestation isa cellular basestation.
 4. The system of claim 3, wherein the receivemodule and the cellular basestation are adapted for mounting to acellular tower.
 5. The system of claim 1, wherein: the system isconnected to a gateway that routes traffic between the system and a widearea network connection terminated at the gateway; and in being conveyedfrom the receive module to the basestation, the plurality of packets donot traverse the wide area network connection.
 6. The system of claim 5,wherein the system is operable to convey media content to the gatewayconcurrently with the conveyance of the plurality of packets to thecellular basestation.
 7. The system of claim 5, wherein the systemcomprises a routing module that is operable to selectively routereceived satellite media content to one or both of the basestation andthe gateway.
 8. The system of claim 5, wherein the system is connectedto the gateway via an Ethernet physical layer connection.
 9. The systemof claim 1, wherein: in being conveyed from the satellite receive moduleto the wireless basestation, the media content does not traverse anywide area network connection.
 10. A method comprising: receiving asatellite signal via a receive module; monitoring whether the satellitesignal is associated with a wireless basestation and a cellularprovider; if the satellite signal is associated with the wirelessbasestation and the cellular provider, processing the satellite signalto recover media content carried in the satellite signal; and conveyingthe recovered media content to the wireless basestation that iscollocated with the receive module, such that the recovered mediacontent can be transmitted by the wireless basestation.
 11. The methodof claim 10, comprising packetizing the media content into one or moreIP packets for the conveying to the wireless basestation.
 12. The methodof claim 10, wherein in being conveyed from the receive module to thebasestation, the media content does not traverse any wide area networkconnection.
 13. The method of claim 10 comprising conveying the mediacontent to a gateway concurrently with the conveyance to the wirelessbasestation.